| Issue |
A&A
Volume 430, Number 2, February I 2005
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 629 - 642 | |
| Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041736 | |
| Published online | 20 January 2005 | |
HS 2331+3905: The cataclysmic variable that has it all*
1
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA e-mail: araujo@stsci.edu
2
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
3
Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
4
Institute of Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, PO Box 20048, Athens 11810, Greece
5
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755-3528, USA
6
Braeside Observatory, PO Box 906, Flagstaff AZ 86002, USA
7
Bischmisheim, Am Probstbaum 10, 66132 Saarbrücken, Germany
Received:
26
July
2004
Accepted:
27
September
2004
We report detailed follow-up observations of the cataclysmic
variable HS 2331+3905, identified as an emission-line object in the
Hamburg Quasar Survey. An orbital period of 81.08 min is
unambiguously determined from the detection of eclipses in the light
curves of HS 2331+3905. A second photometric period is consistently
detected at 
min, ∼2.8% longer than Porb,
which we tentatively relate to the presence of permanent superhumps.
High time resolution photometry exhibits short-timescale variability
on time scales of 
5-6 min which we interpret as non-radial
white dwarf pulsations, as well as a coherent signal at 1.12 min,
which is likely to be the white dwarf spin period. A large-amplitude
quasi-sinusoidal radial velocity modulation of the Balmer and Helium
lines with a period ∼3.5 h is persistently detected
throughout three seasons of time-resolved spectroscopy. However,
this spectroscopic period, which is in no way related to the orbital
period, is not strictly coherent but drifts in period and/or phase
on time scales of a few days. Modeling the far-ultraviolet to
infrared spectral energy distribution of HS 2331+3905, we determine
a white dwarf temperature of 
K (assuming
), close to the ZZ Ceti instability strip of
single white dwarfs. The spectral model implies a distance of
pc, and a low value for the distance is supported by
the large proper motion of the system,
. The non-detection of molecular
bands and the low J, H, and K fluxes of HS 2331+3905 make
this object a very likely candidate for a brown-dwarf donor.
Key words: stars: binaries: close / stars: individual: HS 2331+3905 / stars: novae, cataclysmic variables
Based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555, on observations made at the 1.2m telescope, located at Kryoneri Korinthias, and owned by the National Observatory of Athens, Greece, and with the Isaac Newton Telescope and William Herschel Telescope, which are operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.
© ESO, 2005
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